The return of Bartok the String Quartets

So i was harsh on them earlier, but i've been listening quite a lot to numbers 3-6.

I have come to prefer 3 and 5, 5 in particular has some lovely passages- the scherzo in SQ#5 in particular brings some color and light to what are otherwise fairly grim scenes, i love the vitality in these two quartets, while SQ#6 seems so bleak and desolate (as do the slow movements in other SQs), i love music with real vigor, energy. I love the plucked glissandi in SQ#3 and the occasional outbursts of visceral dissonances. I wish i could share this music with someone with strong ears, theres some very good stuff here. Bartok often appears to really be interested in sonority in a very modern (read: contemporary) way, and this surprises me for some reason. There are those passages where the musical material seems preoccupied with giving the listener something they're unprepared to hear... something they have not heard before and something interesting in a purely aural sense.

SQ 4 has not impressed me yet. I didn’t find much of interest, but i should give it another fair listen.

All and all Bartok is difficult to listen to in that his musical material is rarely revisited and the variations (or development) spun off the opening material are often difficult to follow. His harmonies often lack enough contrast to bring warmth or color, but sometimes flow into a certain monotony in black and gray. The dissonance is great, but it is rarely intense to the point of becoming visceral or passionate, or even surprising or interesting. This is bartok at his worst, but like i said, at his best he really hits it off, he brings some really great ideas to the string quartet form.

Today i bought Bartok

and then i listened to the Gurrelieder.

Why didn’t anyone tell me that the Gurrelieder was so... hypnotically beautiful? My god. This is something else... I downloaded the complete work yesterday so this is the first time I’ve ever listened to it. Wow, i mean, at first listening i already know Gurrelieder is going to be on the favorites list. I knew Schoenberg was capable of beauty, but not this. The term eargasm works well enough.

In other news I bought the complete Bartok's string quartets.

I’m finding it hard so far to get too excited. They're supposed to be great, but there are a number of string quartets i find to be exceptional that I’ve heard already- ( those by Janacek, Ravel, Borodin, and of course, Beethoven) so Bartok already has a lot of competition, and standing next to those works it may be difficult to be great in my book.

Im afraid for Mr. Bartok. Is he up to his longwinded-ness again? I cant be sure. A quick listen to the 4th and 5th didn’t offer me many musical ideas to really appreciate, it just sort of went on and on from dissonance to dissonance without giving me too much flavor. I was left licking my lips for any residual interest... but found little. I cant contemn these quartets though, not at all, they need a good listening still. Maybe they'll get one after i listen to my dear Gurrelieder .